Category: Medications

All medications have side-effects associated with them. I am yet to hear of a medication that is completely safe – one that has absolutely no side-effects. Therefore, while taking any medication, you do so knowing that you are likely to suffer some side-effects. You can’t avoid the side effects. But there are things you can do, to minimize them. And those things, that you can do to minimize medication side-effects, will be the focus of today’s article. Without further ado, if you want to minimize medication side-effects, you need to:

Take the medications at the right dosages: you are (obviously) likely to suffer more side-effects if you overdose on the medications. So stick to the minimum effective doses.

Take the medications at the right frequencies: like if, for instance, you are instructed to take the medications once every six hours, you need to avoid a situation where you end up taking consecutive doses after four hours. The objective here is to avoid ending up with too high a concentration of the medication in your body, leading to unpleasant side effects.

Follow the medication usage instructions carefully: if, for instance, you are instructed to take the medications with plenty of water, do so – otherwise you will suffer more of the side effects. Or if you are told to take the medications on a full tummy, do so – or otherwise you will experience more of the side effects. Just try to follow the instructions carefully. There is surely no reason as to why you would fail to follow medication usage instructions. After all if, for instance, you work for a company like Walmart, you are inclined to follow Walmart1login instructions carefully every time you wish to view your Walmart1 schedule. You should similarly be keen on following medication usage instructions more carefully – knowing that the stakes here are much higher.

Use the right medication for the right purpose: like if, for instance, you decide to use a cough syrup to get ‘high’, or you decide to use a painkiller to numb emotional pain, you would be abusing the medication. And by so doing, you would be setting yourself up for nasty side effects in the long run.

Talk to your doctor about the potential side effects: the idea here is to get the physician to explain to you what the potential side effects are, and whether there are other alternative medications you can use with fewer/less sever side effects.

Medications tend to be costly. The (difficult) question that arises, then, is as to how we can ensure that poor people have access to essential medications. For sure, if special interventions aren’t put in place, there is a good possibility that the poor people wouldn’t be able to access the medications they need to preserve their health. For if the medications are sold at market prices, with no special arrangements for the poor people, then they may be out of reach for the poor. That would in turn lead to a situation where the poor people miss out on treatment for otherwise easily treatable diseases. And if the poor people can’t get treatment for their diseases, it would follow that their productivity would be compromised. With compromised productivity, it would mean that such people would have no way of escaping poverty… They would have fallen into a poverty trap. Clearly then, there is need for special interventions to be put in place, to ensure that poor people have access to essential medications. Those special interventions usually include:

Subsidizing the medications: the objective here would be to ensure that the cost of the essential medications is lowered to a level where even the poor people can afford it. The challenge here would, of course, be in figuring out who should benefit from the subsidy and who shouldn’t. Take, for instance, a fellow who works as a porter for a company like UPS. For sure, he has a job. On a fortnightly basis, he goes to the UPSers.com login screen, signs in, and proceeds to find a paycheck. But given the fact that he is just a porter, you can be sure that the paycheck he finds at Upsers.com is bound to be very modest. And if he is a temporary worker, he may not be eligible for health insurance either. So would such a person be eligible for the medication subsidy – notwithstanding the fact that he has a job? Those are the difficult question that arise while dealing with these sorts of subsidies.

Making cheap generic versions of medications available: it possible to find a generic version of a drug costing just 10% of what the ‘original’ costs. So the poor are able to afford it comfortably. The problem is in the fact that pharmaceutical industry lobbyists may be opposed to programs that make generic medications easily available.

Providing free health insurance to the poor: this can be modeled along the same lines as the American Medicaid program.

Setting up charity hospitals for the poor: these would be places where the poorest of the poor would be able to access the essential medications at absolutely no cost. You have to appreciate that even if the medications are subsidized, we still have the absolutely poor people – the poorest of the poor — who wouldn’t be in a position to afford them.

Every once in a while, you may find yourself having to import medications. If you can’t find the medications you need in the local market, you’d have no alternative but to import. Once you are in that sort of situation, where you have to import medications, the main question you would be grappling with is as to the procedures you need to follow. That is where you’d be keen on knowing the procedures you need to follow, while importing the medications. That is the question we will be attempting to answer in today’s article. And without further ado, we come to learn that the procedure for importation of medications usually entails:

Identifying a vendor to import the medications from: this would entail undertaking research, to identify vendors who sell the types of medications you need on the international market. You need to be careful, to ensure that the vendors you identify are reputable people. Remember, this is the sort of venture where you can easily be scammed. So you need to undertake proper due diligence.

Getting a price quote from the vendor: having identified a potential vendor, you ask him to give you a price quote for the type (and number) of medications you need.

Making an order for the medications you require: this will typically entail raising an international purchase order for the medications.

Paying for the medications: you may need to make an international bank transfer (through the SWIFT system or some other such system) for the medications. So you first obtain the funds you need to finance the importation of the medications. You may, for instance, decide to spend your entire paycheck to finance the importation. Thus, you’d first go to paperlesspay.talx.com to check if the paycheck is ready – that is, if you receive your paychecks through Securitas Epay. If the paycheck is ready, you can then transfer the funds into a bank account, and subsequently proceed to make an international transfer (via, say, SWIFT) to the medications vendor.

Having the medications shipped: having received an order for the medications (alongside the necessary payment), the vendor should then proceed to initiate the shipment of the medication to you. Usually, medications are shipped via air freight.

Clearing the medications with customs: once the medications are shipped, you will have to get them cleared at the customs point of entry. You may be required to fill in some paperwork, and to pay some taxes at this stage.

Having the medications tested for safety: sometimes, the local authorities will demand to subject the imported medications to safety tests, before they are allowed into the market. You may have to pay for the testing. And if the medications don’t pass the safety test, you may have no choice but to see them get destroyed – because a responsible government can’t watch its people being given harmful substances.

People who are involved in dispensing medications tend to have one major fear. This is the fear that the patients may not use the medications in the right manner. And it is a well-founded fear — for numerous studies have shown that patients do indeed have a tendency not to use medications in the right manner. And when patients fail to use medications in the right manner, many things can go wrong. For instance, the medications may fail to work the way they are supposed to. We are all conversant with the emerging trend where antibiotic resistance is increasing all over the world. It is mostly as a result of patients using lower dosages than they are instructed, or patients ceasing to use the medications when they start feeling better (even before completing their doses). But it can get worse. In the worst cases, the patients may end up overdosing themselves, sometimes with tragic results.

Given all those dangers, then, the question arises as to how we can get patients to use medications in the right manner. And in my view, there are two major things we need to do, in order to get patients to use medications in the right manner:

Give medication usage instructions clearly: if you go to pharmacies and other places from where medications are dispensed, you will notice that the medication usage instructions are usually given in a hurried manner. We need to depart from this. The instructions for the usage of medications have to be given slowly and clearly. The important instructions may actually need to be repeated severally, for them to sink in. In this regard, we need to learn from the bankers. The bankers tend to give instructions to their clients very slowly and clearly. You will notice this, for instance, after applying for a Premier credit card (when going to pick it up). The bankers will go to great lengths, in telling you how you should use it, how to protect your PIN, how to repay the balances… and so on. Pharmacists need to be similarly patient, when giving medication usage instructions to the patients.

Educate the patients on the consequences: sometimes, people fail to use medications in the right manner simply because they are unaware of the consequences. If people are educated on the consequences of failing to use medications in the right manner, they are unlikely to misuse the medications. So it is just a question of sensitizing people on the consequences they stand to suffer, if they fail to use medications in the right manner.

Like any other medical facility, a charity hospital has to be stocked with certain medications. But a charity hospital is unlike other medical facilities, when it comes to finances. You see, other medical facilities are able to generate revenues internally, by charging patients for the medical services offered. A charity hospital, on the other hand, usually has to rely on donor funds. It is through the donor funds that it is able to buy medications and other supplies it needs to operate. A charity hospital is often short of funds. Hardly will you come across a charity hospital that has all the money it needs to procure medications and other medical supplies necessary for optimum service delivery. Consequently, certain special considerations come into play, when buying medications for a charity hospital.

Buying the cheapest drug versions

Often, a charity hospital has to buy the cheapest versions of the various medications. This is where the question of buying generic medications arises. The generic medications are just as effective as the ‘originals’, but they cost much less.

Disclosing hospital status

It makes sense, when buying medications for a charity hospital, to inform the drug vendors about the nature of the hospital you are buying drugs for. If the vendors learn that you are buying medications for a charity hospital, they may be inclined to sell the drugs at a lower price than would otherwise be the case. Sometimes, as part of their corporate social responsibility, they may even decide to give the charity hospital certain medications for free. You realize that the pharmaceutical companies tend to pay a lot of attention to corporate social responsibility. The workers in healthcare companies are taught that, as part of their in-house training. That, for instance, may be part of what new CVS employees learn, on the myhr CVS learnet portal. Ultimately, by just mentioning that you are buying medications for a charity hospital, you may get the best possible deal.

Buying in bulk

By buying medications for a charity hospital in bulk, there is a possibility of saving quite a bit of money. This is a question of buying the medications at wholesale prices, and the potential savings are huge.

Buying multiple-use medications

Sometimes, it is a good idea to buy the sorts of medications that have multiple uses – you know, things like the broad spectrum medications. There are certain instances where you find a single medication that is capable of treating a dozen conditions. Buying such a medication may be better than buying different medications for the different conditions. The medical team running the charity hospital can provide the right advice in this regard, based on their expertise and with the best interests of patients at heart.

The business of manufacturing generic medications is a potentially lucrative one. It is also a business that gives you an opportunity to serve humanity – by providing low cost medications to people who wouldn’t otherwise have been able to afford the ‘original’ patented brands. Now there are 5 things you need to have, when venturing into this business of manufacturing generic medications. We will now proceed to look at those things.

The medication formulas: all medications are manufactured following certain formulas. These formulas dictate the ingredients to be used in the manufacture of the drugs, and in what proportions. You need to make a decision on the specific generic medications you will be manufacturing. Then you need to undertake the necessary research, to get the formulas for all those drugs.

The necessary licenses: before starting to manufacture drugs, you need to have certain licenses. These licenses are not easy to obtain. But if you meet all the requirements, and you have all the necessary connections, you can eventually get them. You just need to be a bit tenacious.

Equipment: you need to have certain machines, before embarking on the manufacture of generic medications. Having made decisions on the generic medications you are to manufacture, you need to come up with a list of all the machines you will require. Then you need to buy (or lease) such machines, before embarking on the venture.

Suitable premises: you need to have special premises, to be able to manufacture medications. The manufacture of medications is not like other manufacturing ventures. It requires special premises, in special locations. But if you have adequate capital, it shouldn’t be too hard for you to get suitable premises.

Skilled manpower: you need to have a good workforce, with pharmacists, pharmaceutical technologists and other support staff, before starting to manufacture generic medications. There are many people with the right qualifications, looking for work in these sorts of fields. Therefore, as long as you are offering decent terms, you shouldn’t have too much of a problem getting the people you need.